Marta Rocha Moreira & Ana Sofia Pinto

Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP), Centre for Studies in Architecture and Urbanism (CEAU-FAUP), Portugal
mrocha@arq.up.pt & anasomapi@sapo.pt

A Chimney, Two Chimneys, Twin Chimney. Uses and Architectonic Expressions of a Cooking Space

https://www.doi.org/10.66966/COTAA.2025.09

In the surroundings of Lisbon, between 1385 and 1433, King Dom João I of Portugal commissioned the construction of an unusual kitchen in his palace at Sintra, crowned by a colossal twin conical chimney. Of uncertain origin, possibly Moorish – although, as the architect Raul Lino points out, there is no construction throughout North Africa that served as inspiration – this is a kitchen of simple geometry, consisting of two interconnected quadrangular chambers, each transformed into a gigantic smoke-cone, which, when duplicated, deeply marks the landscape, as depicted by the kingdom’s herald Duarte de Armas in the early 16th century. In fact, contrary to its external expression, this kitchen does not split into two, nor does it have two chimneys; rather, this twin chimney expresses unity, and within it lies a single kitchen. This was particularly true at the time of its construction, when noble culinary practices relied on open flames, and both chambers served as the setting for bonfires where the art of cooking meat was perfected.
Centuries later, the evolution of culinary practices led to the abandonment of spits in favour of the safer stove. The once unified cooking space disappeared, and within the cores of the two cones, distinct tasks began to be performed. Curiously, at a time when this unity had already been broken, in a gesture of simultaneous contrary observation, a mid-20th-century photographic record by António Passaporte captures an illusory southern view of the palace, erasing with a single click the duplicity of the twin chimney in the landscape. Studies carried out over time have yet to identify any precedent for such a curious twin chimney, which appears to have been only rarely imitated in later constructions.

Keywords: twin chimney; culinary practices; architectonic expression; palace; Sintra.